An advert for supposed “fat burner” green tea extract capsules has been banned by watchdogs.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that claims made for Phedra Cut Lipo XT were unsubstantiated and misleading.
The ruling follows a complaint by The Good Thinking Society, which challenges this sort of quackery.
“There is simply no good evidence to support the weight loss claims,” says its Project Leader, Laura Thomason.
This sort of woo is big business. The company behind Phedra is USN (UK) Ltd, which had a turnover of almost £24million in the last financial year.
It is owned by South African business Ultimate Sports Nutrition Global, run by 46-year-old Albe Geldenhuys, which has also been slated by the South African Advertising Standards Authority but with very different results.
Unlike in Britain, businesses chose whether to opt-in to the watchdog. Not surprisingly, Ultimate Sports Nutrition Global chose not to.
Another firm that did not opt-in was Herbex, which made a green tea "Fat Burn Concentrate for Men" that was also adjudicated against by the South African ASA.
Herbex and Ultimate Sports Nutrition took legal action when the watchdog published adverse judgments, claiming it had no jurisdiction over them.
The quacks won the case in the country's Supreme Court and last year the South African ASA went into liquidation, the cost of the litigation being one factor in its demise.
All of which makes me feel thankful that in the UK we have a watchdog that doesn't require permission from advertisers before it can put their claims under the spotlight.
Back to Laura Thomason: "Supplements which claim to boost metabolism or 'burn fat' can seem very tempting, but unfortunately there is no quick fix for weight loss.
"At best, these claims are unsubstantiated and consumers risk wasting their time and money. At worst, products like these can be actively dangerous."
